Manalapan couple learns about Jewish life on the island during a humanitarian trip

5:55 PM,
Feb. 22, 2013

The entrance to the Hebrew Cemetery in Havana.

Written by

Submitted by Helene Greenstein
| Manalapan

On Dec. 23, my husband, Gary Greenstein, and I went on a humanitarian mission to Cuba with a program called Friends of Jewish Cuba.

Our tour guide was Miriam Saul, who fled Cuba with her parents, brother and sister after revolutionary Fidel Castro toppled the regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista. Miriam's mother, 89, who fled Russia for Cuba, was going back to Cuba for the first time in more than 50 years. The tour included many relatives: Miriam's brother and sister, aunt and numerous cousins and in-laws.

We needed special permits and licenses as well as a visa to enter this communist country ...